Impulsive noise suppression in OFDM-based communication systems

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is a technique used for terrestrial digital video broadcasting (DVB-T) and many other modern applications. The longer OFDM symbol duration provides an advantage in a presence of weak impulsive noise, because impulsive noise energy is spread among simultaneously transmitted OFDM sub-carriers. However, it has been recently recognized that this advantage turns into a disadvantage if the impulsive noise energy exceeds certain threshold. In this paper the algorithm for impulsive noise suppression in OFDM receivers is proposed and investigated. Whereas traditional methods for impulsive noise suppression are implemented in a time domain before OFDM demodulation, proposed algorithm compensates impulsive noise in a frequency domain after OFDM demodulation and channel equalization. The method is applied to DVB-T and its performance is studied by means of simulation.